The motley items, political antics & moral posturings thread#2 (wary community)

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NOTICE: This is a continuation of the following, prior thread: https://www.scivillage.com/thread-9611-page-6.html

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Why Jews don’t count to the ‘anti-racists’ (progressives) - UK book/essay review
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-9700-p...l#pid41893

EXCERPTS: David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count is out this week; a piercing 28,000-word essay that throws you back to the age of pamphlet wars. His central and unanswerable contention is that, in a time of identity politics, when every persecuted minority is listened to, there is one ethnic minority large numbers of progressives do not want to hear from: Jews, one of the most persecuted minorities in history.

[...] They tolerate the revival of medieval hatreds because they think all Jews are rich – itself a throwback to the Nazi and Communist stereotype of the Jew as banker and the medieval stereotype of the Jew as usurer. [...] Jews are rich and white therefore we should not worry overmuch about them. Except that not all Jews are rich or white. And even if they were, their richness and whiteness does not spare them from violence and murder.

[...] Baddiel, a lifelong leftist, writes with discernible pain. 'A tiny part of me died,' he says, when he saw the actor Robert Lindsay mourn Corbyn’s departure or heard others he’d once admired dismiss anti-Jewish hatred as an incidental idiosyncrasy that in no way blemishes the shining goodness of the left’s flawless face... (MORE - details, video)

CONTRAST TO: Republicans are applauding Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s time for all Jews to admit this isn’t our party

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How should US anti-Semitism be defined in the Biden era?
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north...iden-era-0

INTRO: The US's Jewish community is debating whether the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition should be enforced as government policy... (MORE)

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Biden’s Policies Are Popular. What Does That Mean for Republicans?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/us/po...icans.html

INTRO: The American public has given President Biden favorable reviews since he took office last month, and the policies that he is hurrying to put in place appear broadly popular, according to polls.

And notably, as he signs a wave of executive actions and pushes a major $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Mr. Biden is facing muted opposition from Republicans so far — a reflection of the party’s weakened position as it juggles two increasingly divided factions.

“I think that Republicans have found Biden to be much more progressive than they thought he was going to be, but I think we’re too busy trying to kill each other to really focus on it,” said Sarah Chamberlain, the president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of centrist Republicans that includes more than 60 members of the House and Senate.

This week, the House’s G.O.P. caucus met to discuss the fate of two lawmakers representing opposite ends of the party’s identity: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican. Ms. Greene is one of the chamber’s most fervent loyalists to former President Donald J. Trump, while Ms. Cheney is pushing to unlink the party from his brand of populism.

The result of the meeting on Wednesday was a kind of stalemate, with the Republican leadership allowing Ms. Greene to keep her committee assignments despite a history of offensive and conspiracy-minded statements, and Ms. Cheney comfortably retaining her top position against a mutiny from Trump allies. Thursday was set to bring another moment of truth for Republicans in the House, with the entire body voting on whether to strip Ms. Greene of her committee positions.

This intraparty division gives Mr. Biden the “upper hand” as he pushes his legislative agenda forward, said Doug Schwartz, the director of polling at Quinnipiac University, which released a nationwide poll on Wednesday. “He’s advocating policies that have solid support in the public, so Republicans are in more of a defensive posture, as they’re opposing popular policies,” Mr. Schwartz said.

The public’s dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the United States remains high: Roughly seven in 10 said they were unhappy with the way things were going, according to the Quinnipiac poll. But optimism is on the rise, and many are attaching their hopes to the new president. When asked about the coming four years under Mr. Biden, 61 percent of Americans described themselves as optimistic... (MORE)

[Syne]

Conservative/orthodox Jews have nowhere else to go. The Democrat party is replete with anti-Semites, antisemitic donors, endorsers, friends, etc.. If one Republican sharing one antisemitic theory is an affront, the entire Democrat party is a constant and ongoing affront to those Jews. Greene has already apologized for or disavowed many of her old social media posts.

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Poll: majority of Republicans, some Democrats would join new party led by Donald Trump
https://www.inquisitr.com/6472321/poll-r...ump-party/

EXCERPTS: After losing the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump reportedly told adviser that he would like to form his own political party. According to a new Hill-HarrisX poll, that would not be a bad idea.

Released on Thursday, the poll — which was conducted online among 340 registered voters — found that 64 percent of registered Republicans would likely join Trump’s party. Notably, nearly 3 in 10 independents and 15 percent of Democrats said that they would also join the Trump-led effort. Overall, 37 percent of respondents said that they would likely join the party.

[...] Trump going his own way would be bad news for the Republican Party, since an organization led by the former commander-in-chief would likely surpass it in popularity. “If Trump were to split from the GOP and create his own party, polling suggests he might well create the second largest political party in the country, knocking the GOP down to third place,” he [Dritan Nesho] said.

[...] As Reuters reported, a recent study conducted by watchdog group the Tech Transparency Project found that conservatives across the nation are warming up to the idea of a Trump-led party ... A recent report from New York Times‘ journalist Maggie Haberman suggested that Trump has been “talked out of” the idea of forming a third party... (MORE - details)

[Syne]

Sounds good to me. Just tell the RINOs and establishment Republicans to adapt or die. Even if Trump doesn't form a new party, a lot of currently serving Republicans are like to lose their seats over things like voting to impeach Trump, being soft on big tech and unconstitutional Covid edicts, etc..

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Biden Pushes U.S.—and the World—to Help Climate Migrants
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...-migrants/

EXCERPTS: A growing number of migrants are forced from their homes each day by climate change, and President Biden signaled last week that he wants the United States and the world to pay more attention to the problem. His first step in that effort was the approval of an executive order Thursday that directs administration officials to undertake a six-month study of climate change’s impact on migration, including “options for protection and resettlement.”

The changes under consideration could far surpass current international practices, experts said -- potentially vaulting the United States to global climate leadership after President Trump spent four years dismantling the United States’ capacity for both climate action and refugee resettlement.

Climate migrants lack protections under international refugee laws, despite their ballooning numbers. “Those of us who have been working in this space have been waiting for this kind of development—and at the highest levels—for years,” said Maxine Burkett, a professor of international and climate change law at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Originally designed for people fleeing armed conflict or persecution, the international refugee system is unequipped to help people displaced by climate impacts. It struggles even to define them, because climate change is often an indirect or contributing factor to the proximate causes of migration, such as famine or floods.

[...] By 2050, the World Bank estimates that as many as 140 million people could become internally displaced each year. (Significant emissions reductions could save as many as 100 million people annually from that fate, according to the 2018 research.)

[...] Burkett called Biden’s order “incredibly forward-looking,” both for leapfrogging the international community and for outlining a comprehensive approach to the issue, including preemptive assistance to areas that might suffer climate impacts. ... Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International, said the totality of Biden’s actions signals the “most comprehensive commitment to enlightened policies and practices” since the modern U.S. refugee system was created four decades ago.

[...] In remarks Thursday, Biden said he was seeking to reclaim “our credibility and moral authority, much of which has been lost.”

The president said his order would put the United States on a path to raising its refugee cap to 125,000 next year. Biden also described it as part of his strategy to pressure other countries to act more urgently on climate. “As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s,” Biden said... (MORE - details)